The University of North Carolina, with Support from Red Hat, to Host Symposium for Intellectual Property, Creativity, and the Innovation Process

The 16-campus University of North Carolina, with support from Red Hat, will host the UNC Symposium for Intellectual Property, Creativity, and the Innovation Process November 1-2, 2005 in Chapel Hill, NC. Drawing more than 100 participants from diverse disciplinesfrom lawyers to chefs and musiciansthe Symposium will take a hard look at all of the languages of creativity and innovation in order to determine how current intellectual property rules and regulations affect creative incentives.

The Symposium will address key areas of concern, including copyright, open source software, economic development, patents, the public domain, peer to peer, and university and industry collaboration. The goal is to develop a better understanding of the creative incentives necessary for cultural, social, intellectual, and economic innovation and growth. Featured speakers will include Mary Easley, First Lady of North Carolina; Matthew Szulik, Red Hat President and CEO; Edward Klaris, General Counsel, The New Yorker; and Cory Doctorow, novelist and European Outreach Coordinator for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. An open public session beginning at 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday, November 2, 2005 a the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Law will expand the dialogue to a broader audience.

"In today's global economy, where intellectual resources are more important than natural resources, progress and growth are driven by creativity and innovation," said UNC President Molly Corbett Broad. "In such an environment, it's critical that we examine the rules and regulations governing intellectual property to assess how they promote or impede innovation and knowledge transfer. We are pleased to join forces with Red Hat in that effort."

"This Symposium personifies the strong relationship which exists between our great public university and the private sector," said Tom Rabon, Executive Vice President, Corporate Affairs at Red Hat. "Red Hat is delighted to have played a role in bringing this important event to North Carolina."

As an outgrowth of the symposium, a specialized center guided by the directions, visions, and needs expressed at the Symposium will be created at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Law. It will reflect the best thinking of the best minds on intellectual property, creativity, and the innovation process.

For more information on the Symposium, please visit http://ipcip.northcarolina.edu.
 

About The University of North Carolina

The oldest public university in America, the University of North Carolina today encompasses all 16 of North Carolinaâeuro™s public institutions that grant baccalaureate degrees and enrolls nearly 196,000 students. UNC campuses support a broad array of distinguished liberal-arts programs, two medical schools and one teaching hospital, two law schools, a veterinary school, a school of pharmacy, ten nursing programs, 15 schools of education, three schools of engineering, and a specialized school for performing artists. Also under the University umbrella are the UNC Center for Public Television with its 11-station statewide broadcast network, and the NC School of Science and Mathematics, the nationâeuro™s first public residential high school for gifted students.

About Red Hat, Inc.

Red Hat, the world's leading open source and Linux provider, is headquartered in Raleigh, NC with satellite offices spanning the globe. Red Hat is leading Linux and open source solutions into the mainstream by making high quality, low cost technology accessible. Red Hat provides operating system software along with middleware, applications and management solutions. Red Hat also offers support, training and consulting services to its customers worldwide and through top-tier partnerships. Red Hat's open source strategy offers customers a long term plan for building infrastructures that are based on and leverage open source technologies with focus on security and ease of management. Learn more: http://www.redhat.com

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